I saw the video for "Let’s Go Crazy" the other day, and remembered the late 80s, around the time of ‘Sign of The Times’, when Paisley Park Studios seemed like the most exciting place in the world. Prince didn’t give many interviews at the time, but fortunately Matt ‘Dr’ Fink, his utterly legendary keyboard player was there and he remembers everything:1) Those massive synth sounds on ‘1999’? They came from an Oberheim 4 Voice, multi-tracked four times with different patches.2) Everything was always played live. The only time he let Dr Fink use a sequencer was to play the rhythm part on ‘I Would Die 4 U’ from Purple Rain. Prince could play it live himself, but Dr Fink couldn’t. 3) Prince also used the boring-but-apparently-good Roland D-50 during the late 80s. Rather than installing a huge, wheezing Hammond in Paisley Park, he… used the Hammond patch on a D-50. Perhaps you'd like to buy a D-50 Fridge Magnet4) On stage, Prince appears to be playing a grand piano. In fact, it’s a prop – a Yamaha KX88 master keyboard built into a piano shell with a strengthened top (so he can dance on it).5)Jimmy Jam auditioned to be Prince’s keyboard player. Fink got the job. 6) Dr Fink is no longer working with Prince. He is available for session work and can be booked on 1-952-447-7708. You can see his studio here. CLICK FOR MORE PRINCE

Posted by Tom Whitwell.

Comments:

I've been told that prince is proficient at 17 different instruments. true? what do we know for sure that he plays?

also, he plays percussion (in addition to the drum set), guitar (acoustic, electric, steel, etc.), bass (electric & acoustic), piano, organ (B-3), strings, & some others. check out most of his albums - he plays most (on many ALL) of the instruments. if you are a musician, you can tell a synthesized sound from the real thing - though he incorporates both on his records. or better yet, just go see this cat rock live - he pretty much runs through about 7 of them on stage...

I think the "17 instruments" thing was a way of saying, without being too technical about things to a predominately "disco" audience, that Prince programmed, produced, composed and performed all the music on his early albums.

Although it's clear he is a great piano, bass, six string and drummer I've never seen him play Sax, Trombone, Gazoo et cetera.

Of course, the irony is, years later we learned that many of the memorable hooks and licks from the likes of Controversy, Parade, Around the world in a day et cetera where in fact Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman.

While this takes nothing away from the legend that is Mr. Nelson it does sort of back up the idea that 17 instruments was something of a "let's see if the press fall for this" joke which just sort of stuck.